Between You and Me
by akinosora01
Summary: [Drabble Series] A series of short drabbles taking place at various parts in Takeru and Kotoha's relationship.
1. Paper Crane

Title: Between You And Me

By: akinosora01

Category: Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Status: Incomplete

Chapters: 1

Author's Note:

A collection of disconnected one-shots/vignettes/drabbles at various times in Takeru and Kotoha's relationship. Not always necessarily focusing on Takeru and Kotoha, but Takeru/Kotoha all the same.

Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

_#1 – Paper Crane_

All in the Shiba mansion is quiet, so Takeru meanders around the halls until he hears the sharp sounds of folding paper behind a pair of shoji doors.

Curious, as he knows that the other Shinkengers had taken this rare opportunity of freedom to go out and see the city, he slides the door open.

Kotoha pauses to look over her shoulder. "Tono-sama!"

"What're you doing?" he asks, his eyes spying on the pile of colorful folded paper cranes.

"Making paper cranes," Kotoha cheerfully answers.

"Why?" he asks.

"Well…" she fidgets, as if hesitating to tell him. When he stays silent, waiting for her answers, she replies, "It's for Nee-san."

It takes a moment for him to realize that it's for Kotoha's biological sister, the one who originally was supposed to have held the Shinken Yellow title, and asks, "Is she feeling unwell lately?"

"I just had a letter from mother," Kotoha confesses, her eyes dimming, "and Nee-san had to be admitted to the hospital."

"I see." Takeru looks thoughtful for a few minutes, then murmurs, "You could take some time off to see her."

Kotoha looks alarmed at his words. "Oh, no, Tono-sama! How could I abandon my duties as a Shinkenger?"

Takeru has to admit to himself that what Kotoha said is true—Shinkengers should always think of duty first. Even so, seeing her so worried but unable to visit her sister, he feels somehow responsible.

Kotoha smiles up at him. "Would you like to fold some cranes, Tono-sama?"

He looks down at the pieces of brightly colored paper; it has been a long time since he's folded a crane. He enters the room to sit on a cushion adjacent from her, and starts to fold.


	2. Cake

Title: Between You and Me

By: akinosora01

Category: Super Sentai/Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Status: Incomplete

Chapters: 2

Author's Note:

This one makes me smile. ^.^

Disclaimer: I own neither Samurai Sentai Shinkenger nor any Super Sentai.

_#4 – Cake_

Saki looks up with a smile and says brightly, "Welcome to the…" She trails off when she sees Shinken Red in the doorway. "Takeru-san! What brings you here?"

He looks equally surprised to see Go-Onger Yellow behind the counter. "You work here."

"Well, yes, when I'm not at pastry school." Wiping her hands with a damp towel, she asks, "Are you here for a cake?"

"Ah…yes." The Shiba lord suddenly looks uncomfortable and stiff, as if unused to buying cakes. "It's for someone's birthday."

"Do you want it to be personalized?" Saki asks, curious. From what she heard from Sousuke, it seems to her that Shiba Takeru isn't someone who carelessly revealed his emotions; in fact, Sousuke had initially complained about Shinken Red's arrogant attitude.

"If you wouldn't mind…" Approaching the counter, Takeru-san digs around his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper with words written on it. "I'd like this message and this figure on the cake."

"Very well." She quickly rings up the order, and as Takeru-san signs the receipt she says, "I'll be right back with the cake!" She has a few other orders to fill, but this one takes precedence.

As she disappears into the back room to prepare the order, she glances down at the white slip of paper with Takeru-san's message, and smiles.

On the slip paper, words of birthday congratulations are written, along with the design of a girl playing her flute, with a little yellow monkey by her side.


	3. Realization

Title: Between You and Me

By: akinosora01

Category: Super Sentai/Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Status: Incomplete

Chapters: 3

Author's Note:

I had fun with this one. Takeru and Kotoha are so shy….

This most likely won't stay as a stand-alone. I may drag this out.

Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

_#3 – Realization_

It doesn't occur to either of them, really, what being a married couple entails, not until the wedding guests have left and they are blissfully alone in the Shiba mansion.

The months before the wedding didn't really give them—both of them—much time to think about what would happen _after _the long wedding ceremony and reception with the retainer clans and the Shiba clan. Though the kuroko—and also Mako, who flew over from Hawaii after a plea for help from a nervous Kotoha—had helped out, the last few months before the wedding felt like a whirlwind.

However, when the moon is high in the sky and they are alone, they don't immediately take the futons out, opting for sitting on the engawa while still in their wedding attire and sipping the remnants of a prized sake gifted by an overenthusiastic Genta.

Takeru clears his throat, setting down his sake cup. "We should get going."

Kotoha starts, and stutters furiously. "Y-y-yes."

Their eyes meet, and Kotoha blushes furiously before looking away. Takeru, for his part, isn't much better, realizing just what retiring for the night meant for him and his bride. He clears his throat again, swallowing convulsively when he finds his throat inordinately dry.

(Somewhere in the background, he can almost hear Genta and Chiaki gleefully cackling at him and his predicament.)


	4. Wolves

Title: Between You and Me

By: akinosora01

Category: Super Sentai/Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Status: Incomplete

Chapters: 4

Author's Note:

For those who were expecting a continuation for "Realization," it's going to come out sooner or later. I seem to have run into a snag—Writer's Block, really—while I was writing the second—and third—parts for the little trilogy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

_#4 – Wolves_

It's so much easier during the earliest stages of their new relationship—their "dates," so to speak, usually were activities in the Shiba mansion—sparring, having tea, taking walks. They're at the stage when the change in their relationship is so new that the idea of trying out activities as a _couple_ rather than as comrades is more than a little daunting, so they tend to stick to the familiar.

But when the other Shinkengers—Ryuunosuke and Mako, primarily—get whiff of the situation (Takeru privately suspects the kuroko as the culprits in divulging information), they drag him aside one spring afternoon and soundly berate him, offering him pointers on how to date Kotoha. Mako insists that he take Kotoha out for ice-cream, and Ryuunosuke whole-heartedly agrees, even involving Genta's signature loud vocal support.

Somehow, Takeru finds himself walking into an ice-cream parlor not long after, Kotoha trotting after him in a sunny yellow sundress and sandals.

Like any warrior, Takeru is trained to sense out any threats, and he is on full alert when he senses eyes on them. He casts a cursory glance around the busy ice-cream shop and notices the threat.

All male eyes are on the little ray of sunshine next to him.


	5. Confession

Title: Between You and Me

By: akinosora01

Category: Super Sentai/Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Status: Incomplete

Chapters: 5

Author's Note:

A conversation that Jii and Takeru didn't have in the series.

Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

_#5 – Confession_

"Tono-sama."

Takeru looks up to see Hikoma in his sleeping yukata and a worried expression on his face. "Jii." He smiles vaguely and holds up his sake cup. "Care to drink with me?"

Hikoma has been with Takeru long enough to know that while he isn't exactly drunk, the young Shinken Red isn't exactly sober, either.

Hikoma doesn't ask right away, knowing that his charge would tell him once he's comfortable to do so. To him, his charge is more than someone he is obligated to serve: in a way, Takeru feels more like his child than his lord. The years together had taught him to recognize the miniscule changes in Takeru's expressions, even when everyone else could not read his moods. The faintest of lines between the eyebrows tells Hikoma that the young Shiba lord is troubled, and it is only a matter of time—and from the number of empty sake bottles, _very_ soon—before Takeru would speak.

"Jii…" Takeru pauses, as if hesitant. Hikoma waits patiently, sipping at the sweet sake.

"How do you know…when you feel more for someone than that of a comrade?"

It takes a few moments for Hikoma to process his words. Wait…did that mean…?

"What kind of feelings, tono-sama?" he asks carefully.

Takeru turns his head away from Hikoma, to look out at the pristine rock garden. "Just…feelings that are not comrade-like."

_Oh. Ooooh. _Suddenly, Hikoma understands.

He's seen the signs, the signs of a relationship that is more than of comrades. They stand closer to each other than before, and share secret glances when they think that no one is looking. The edges of Takeru's eyes soften when they are directed in a certain direction, on a certain person.

"Well…"


End file.
